Where did Jesus go between his death and resurrection?

[vicwestlad]

I know the catechism teaches that Jesus went to “hell” between his death and resurrection but did he go to the actual hell that people will suffer in forever, or did he visit some other place called “hell” where the souls of the departed were kept temporarily but that wasn’t the real bad end of time hell?

I’m finding this a bit confusing, when they say he went to hell but people tell me it wasn’t the hell you normally think of.

 

[GEddie]

I know the catechism teaches that Jesus went to “hell” between his death and resurrection but did he go to the actual hell that people will suffer in forever, or did he visit some other place called “hell” where the souls of the departed were kept temporarily but that wasn’t the real bad end of time hell?

I’m finding this a bit confusing, when they say he went to hell but people tell me it wasn’t the hell you normally think of.

First off, I don’t have the original of the creed; it’s all Greek to me

However, this is my MX$2 worth:

Hell, originally, was no more than “the place of the dead.” It did not become the name for the place of spiritual punishment until Christian times. So, to say that our LORD was in “Hell” simply meant that He was truthfully dead, and gone where dead human beings go, and normally do not return from.

But HE went there to lead his captive fellow humans out of the land of death and into the l"land of the living."

================================================================

The Lord’s descent into the underworld
Something strange is happening- - there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness.

The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep.

The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began.

God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.

He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep.

Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve.

The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory.

At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all.” Christ answered him: “And with your spirit.”

He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake.

I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image.

Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.

For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.

See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you.

See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image.

On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back.

See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.

I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.

Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise.

I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven.

I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God.

The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager.

The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open.

The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity."

From an ancient homily for Holy Saturday (P.G. 43, 439, 451, 462-463)​

God Bless and ICXC NIKA!

 

[crazzeto]

The honest answer, per Father Rochel and his Guest on Sunday Night Live is no one is exactly sure. What we know (in the creed) is that he “decended to the underworld” or “place of the dead”. This has been translated to “Hell” or “to the dead”. Neither are necessiarly 100% accurate per the what was explained.

I guess as far as I know the best understanding is he went somewhere, where souls were waiting to go to heaven once the gates were opened. What/where exactly that is… not sure.

 

[vicwestlad]

First off, I don’t have the original of the creed; it’s all Greek to me

However, this is my MX$2 worth:

Hell, originally, was no more than “the place of the dead.” It did not become the name for the place of spiritual punishment until Christian times. So, to say that our LORD was in “Hell” simply meant that He was truthfully dead, and gone where dead human beings go, and normally do not return from.

But HE went there to lead his captive fellow humans out of the land of death and into the l"land of the living."

Right, because the NT was written in Greek and not English there was no hell to begin with. There was only Hades, Tartarus and Gehenna, and the all meant different things.

I guess the problem is that none of the gospels actually says he went to hades, tartarus, or gehenna. So really the idea of him going to “hell” is just an interpretation of the church fathers using certain enigmatic verses from the Bible and some non-canonical texts.

So really we don’t know what he was doing. This seems a bit strange since he was whereever he was for three days and three nights. These are perhaps the most important three days in human history, but no one seems to know what was going on.

We guess when the catechims says he went to hell they actually mean hades, since that was the actual Greek word used and the English “hell” as it’s come to be known really isn’t a good translation at all.

 

[vicwestlad]

The honest answer, per Father Rochel and his Guest on Sunday Night Live is no one is exactly sure. What we know (in the creed) is that he “decended to the underworld” or “place of the dead”. This has been translated to “Hell” or “to the dead”. Neither are necessiarly 100% accurate per the what was explained.

I guess as far as I know the best understanding is he went somewhere, where souls were waiting to go to heaven once the gates were opened. What/where exactly that is… not sure.

Don’t you think it’s weird that no one knows what Jesus was doing for three days after his death? I find that very odd and puzzling.

Now, you say he went to free the souls who were waiting to go to heaven but there’s really no scripture that confirms this. Just some disputed ones like 1 Peter 3:18 and Ephesians 4:8-10. I have a couple of questions about this belief.

1. Who would have been in this place where souls were waiting to go to heaven? Adam, Noah?
2. How about the wicked people? Where would they have been?
3. How about those who lived before Jesus or in other parts of the world where they’d never heard of him. Were they waiting to go to heaven too and were they let out when Jesus descended to this netherworld?

 

[coracobb]

I am glad to know that we will have all our questions answered if the continue on the road to Heaven. Won’t it be great. I wonder if we will even care once we see Him and the grandure of Heaven.

May God Bless You

Clc

 

[GEddie]

Don’t you think it’s weird that no one knows what Jesus was doing for three days after his death? I find that very odd and puzzling.

Why so weird? He was in, after all, “the place of the dead,” howver named in Greek; to have seen where he went, you would need to be with Him; and human beings do not, other than He, return from there. Late-1900s near-death narratives notwithstanding.

Now, you say he went to free the souls who were waiting to go to heaven but there’s really no scripture that confirms this. Just some disputed ones like 1 Peter 3:18 and Ephesians 4:8-10. I have a couple of questions about this belief.

1. Who would have been in this place where souls were waiting to go to heaven? Adam, Noah?

1. How about the wicked people? Where would they have been?

1. How about those who lived before Jesus or in other parts of the world where they’d never heard of him. Were they waiting to go to heaven too and were they let out when Jesus descended to this netherworld?

God is not, a priori, concerned with answering our curiosity about situations we will never be involved in. Since all of us live after Christ and have obviously heard of Him (else we would not be on a Catholic web forum), interest in your 3 cases is purely conjectural.

ICXC NIKA.

 

[Carlan]

I know the catechism teaches that Jesus went to “hell” between his death and resurrection but did he go to the actual hell that people will suffer in forever, or did he visit some other place called “hell” where the souls of the departed were kept temporarily but that wasn’t the real bad end of time hell?

I’m finding this a bit confusing, when they say he went to hell but people tell me it wasn’t the hell you normally think of.

Hello Vicwestlad, This is what the Catholic Church teaches.As I understand it.

Christ descended into hell.
Church teaches that Jesus decended into hell and in his soul joined other in ther realm of the dead.
But he decended there as Savior, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits imprisoned there.
Such is the case for all the dead, whether evil or righteous, while they await the redeemer: which does not mean that their lot is identical, as Jesus shows through the parable of the poor man Lazarus who was rec’d into “Abraham’s bosom”.
It is precisely these holy souls, who awaited their Savior in Abraham’s bosom, whom Christ the Lord delivered when he descended into hell.
Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned ,nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him. Carlan

 

[vicwestlad]

GEddie:

Why so weird? He was in, after all, “the place of the dead,” howver named in Greek

Well the first problem is that this is disputed. Some people think he went to heaven. Remember he said to the criminal “today you will be with me in paradise”. I know some people also think paradise is another name for Abraham’s Bosom, where Lazarus went but then you have the problem of Paul saying he visited paradise which was where God’s throne is. Yes I know some people then say well paradise was moved when Jesus brought the souls out but moving paradise from Hades to heaven seems just plain weird to me.

GEddie:

to have seen where he went, you would need to be with Him; and human beings do not, other than He, return from there. Late-1900s near-death narratives notwithstanding.

But surely he would have told his disciples about it, and this would have been transmitted through oral tradition till the gospels were written. Surely, you can’t think that during the time he spent with his disciples, he never discussed going to hell/hades to let out the Old Testament saints. Remember the saints had risen from their graves at Jesus’ death and were walking the streets of Jerusalem witnessing to people. They must have asked Jesus how they got out of hell.

GEddie:

God is not, a priori, concerned with answering our curiosity about situations we will never be involved in. Since all of us live after Christ and have obviously heard of Him (else we would not be on a Catholic web forum), interest in your 3 cases is purely conjectural.

In other words you’re at a complete loss as to how to answer those three questions. I understand. They’re problematic.

 

[vicwestlad]

Hello Vicwestlad, This is what the Catholic Church teaches.As I understand it.

Christ descended into hell.
Church teaches that Jesus decended into hell and in his soul joined other in ther realm of the dead.
But he decended there as Savior, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits imprisoned there.
Such is the case for all the dead, whether evil or righteous, while they await the redeemer: which does not mean that their lot is identical, as Jesus shows through the parable of the poor man Lazarus who was rec’d into “Abraham’s bosom”.
It is precisely these holy souls, who awaited their Savior in Abraham’s bosom, whom Christ the Lord delivered when he descended into hell.
Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned ,nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him. Carlan

Hi Carlan. My question was if by “hell” the catechism means the same hell as the one the wicked will suffer in forever, or if this “hell” that Christ desceded to was a different “hell”. I see evangelical sights saying Jesus went to “hades” but not “hell”. I always took the hell that Jesus suposedly descended to to be the same one as the everlasting one but apparently many people dispute this. It’s a tad confusing but what do you think?

 

[vicwestlad]

GEddie, I have another question for you. Since you say he was there freeing the souls of the dead, why do you think it took three days? Why would it take that long?

 

[Carlan]

Hi Carlan. My question was if by “hell” the catechism means the same hell as the one the wicked will suffer in forever, or if this “hell” that Christ descended to was a different “hell”. I see evangelical sights saying Jesus went to “hades” but not “hell”. I always took the hell that Jesus supposedly descended to to be the same one as the everlasting one but apparently many people dispute this. It’s a tad confusing but what do you think?

Vicwestlad, I don’t believe the holy people of the old testament were waiting in the fires of hell for the Messiah, I know the catechism uses the term hell,however, I still feel the actual place our Lord descended to should be referred to as the ‘Bosom of Abraham.’
I suppose there are some mysteries we will never have the true answer to until we are safely home with God.Carlan

 

[Carlan]

GEddie, I have another question for you. Since you say he was there freeing the souls of the dead, why do you think it took three days? Why would it take that long?

I think perhaps the good news took that long to convince them all, they were surely surprised to see him finally arrive.:shrug Carlan

 

[crazzeto]

Don’t you think it’s weird that no one knows what Jesus was doing for three days after his death? I find that very odd and puzzling.

No, why would I? No one understands the trinaty to this day, yet we know it exists. I would put forward the notion that Revelation is, essentially a closed book to us. Yes it has meaning which we can extract, but we don’t fully understand it because we have no frame of reference and it hasn’t happend yet.

In faith there is mystery, you accept it.

Now, you say he went to free the souls who were waiting to go to heaven but there’s really no scripture that confirms this. Just some disputed ones like 1 Peter 3:18 and Ephesians 4:8-10. I have a couple of questions about this belief.

1. Who would have been in this place where souls were waiting to go to heaven? Adam, Noah?

Yes, Moses and everyone else

1. How about the wicked people? Where would they have been?

From what I understand, yes they might well have been in exactly the same realm… Perhaps a less comfortable version, based upon Jesus’s parable of Lazerus. But based upon what I understand, there wasn’t an idea yet, necessarly of heaven v. hell for human souls.

1. How about those who lived before Jesus or in other parts of the world where they’d never heard of him. Were they waiting to go to heaven too and were they let out when Jesus descended to this netherworld?

Souls ignorant of Christ to this very day can make it to heaven, we as Catholics have faith that God has some mechinism which allows them to be saved. We already know that when Christ was crusified Gods Grace was poured out on the world like water. If souls ignorant of Christ today can make it to heaven, I have no problem believeing souls ignorant of Christ because he hadn’t been born yet also made it to heaven.

 

[crowcounty]

I know the catechism teaches that Jesus went to “hell” between his death and resurrection but did he go to the actual hell that people will suffer in forever, or did he visit some other place called “hell” where the souls of the departed were kept temporarily but that wasn’t the real bad end of time hell?

I’m finding this a bit confusing, when they say he went to hell but people tell me it wasn’t the hell you normally think of.

he descended to the dead preached the gospel there to those who had died before the promise of the covenant arrived

 

[GEddie]

GEddie, I have another question for you. Since you say he was there freeing the souls of the dead, why do you think it took three days? Why would it take that long?

It probably didn’t. In death, we exit time, and what we pass through has no relation to elapsed time in human life on earth.

The 3 days were not for Jesus’ benefit. He had said to his companion in death, “Today you will be with me in paradise,” not “Three days from now.” Ergo, whatever He did in “Hell,” He was going to be out of it and leading that person to Heaven long before the three days were over.

Jesus was master of time as well as death. He could have awakened His body while He was being lowered from the cross, or while being shrouded, or at any other time.

Why did He not do so? Probably, because if He had, everybody would believe He had in fact not died at all, but only blacked out. As with His friend Lazarus, the 3 days of death became proof positive that He had indeed tasted death, as we all will, but that for Him it had not taken. Thereby, becoming the hope of His fellow human beings as they face the hideosity of death.

ICXC NIKA!

 

[Mintaka]

The old name in English for this was “the harrowing of Hell”.

The medievals were fond of dramatic pictures of Jesus preaching to the patriarchs and matriarchs, being reunited with Joseph, being nice to Adam and Eve as He led them out, and smashing demons beneath his feet.

There are other pictures showing Jesus marching out of His tomb with all the righteous dead lined up behind him, coming out two by two. More dramatic pictures show the gates of Hell as a gigantic demon mouth, or a huge whale, out of which the dead walk behind Jesus and His banner. A lot of this came from equally dramatic poetic renditions of the story.

Art appreciation class. Comes in really useful when it comes to religion.

 

[thistle]

What the Church teaches:

“HE DESCENDED INTO HELL. ON THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN”

CCC 631 Jesus “descended into the lower parts of the earth. He who descended is he who also ascended far above all the heavens.” The Apostles’ Creed confesses in the same article Christ’s descent into hell and his Resurrection from the dead on the third day, because in his Passover it was precisely out of the depths of death that he made life spring forth:

Christ, that Morning Star, who came back from the dead, and shed his peaceful light on all mankind, your Son who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

Paragraph 1. Christ Descended into Hell

CCC 632 The frequent New Testament affirmations that Jesus was “raised from the dead” presuppose that the crucified one sojourned in the realm of the dead prior to his resurrection. This was the first meaning given in the apostolic preaching to Christ’s descent into hell: that Jesus, like all men, experienced death and in his soul joined the others in the realm of the dead. But he descended there as Savior, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits imprisoned there.

CCC 633 Scripture calls the abode of the dead, to which the dead Christ went down, “hell” - Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek - because those who are there are deprived of the vision of God. Such is the case for all the dead, whether evil or righteous, while they await the Redeemer: which does not mean that their lot is identical, as Jesus shows through the parable of the poor man Lazarus who was received into “Abraham’s bosom”: “It is precisely these holy souls, who awaited their Savior in Abraham’s bosom, whom Christ the Lord delivered when he descended into hell.” Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him.

CCC 634 “The gospel was preached even to the dead.” The descent into hell brings the Gospel message of salvation to complete fulfilment. This is the last phase of Jesus’ messianic mission, a phase which is condensed in time but vast in its real significance: the spread of Christ’s redemptive work to all men of all times and all places, for all who are saved have been made sharers in the redemption.

CCC 635 Christ went down into the depths of death so that “the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” Jesus, “the Author of life”, by dying destroyed "him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and [delivered] all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage."Henceforth the risen Christ holds “the keys of Death and Hades”, so that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.”

Today a great silence reigns on earth, a great silence and a great stillness. A great silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. . . He has gone to search for Adam, our first father, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow Adam in his bonds and Eve, captive with him - He who is both their God and the son of Eve. . . “I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. . . I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead.”

 

[Nita]

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
Paragraph 1. CHRIST DESCENDED INTO HELL

632 The frequent New Testament affirmations that Jesus was “raised from the dead” presuppose that the crucified one sojourned in the realm of the dead prior to his resurrection.477 This was the first meaning given in the apostolic preaching to Christ’s descent into hell: that Jesus, like all men, experienced death and in his soul joined the others in the realm of the dead. But he descended there as Saviour, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits imprisoned there.478

633 Scripture calls the abode of the dead, to which the dead Christ went down, “hell” - Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek - because those who are there are deprived of the vision of God.479 Such is the case for all the dead, whether evil or righteous, while they await the Redeemer: which does not mean that their lot is identical, as Jesus shows through the parable of the poor man Lazarus who was received into “Abraham’s bosom”:480 "It is precisely these holy souls, who awaited their Saviour in Abraham’s bosom, whom Christ the Lord delivered when he descended into hell."481 Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him.482

634 "The gospel was preached even to the dead."483 The descent into hell brings the Gospel message of salvation to complete fulfilment. This is the last phase of Jesus’ messianic mission, a phase which is condensed in time but vast in its real significance: the spread of Christ’s redemptive work to all men of all times and all places, for all who are saved have been made sharers in the redemption.

635 Christ went down into the depths of death so that "the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live."484 Jesus, “the Author of life”, by dying destroyed "him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and [delivered] all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage."485 Henceforth the risen Christ holds “the keys of Death and Hades”, so that "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth."486

Today a great silence reigns on earth, a great silence and a great stillness. A great silence because the King is asleep. the earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. . . He has gone to search for Adam, our first father, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow Adam in his bonds and Eve, captive with him - He who is both their God and the son of Eve. . . "I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. . . I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead."487

IN BRIEF

636 By the expression “He descended into hell”, the Apostles’ Creed confesses that Jesus did really die and through his death for us conquered death and the devil “who has the power of death” (⇒ Heb 2:14).

637 In his human soul united to his divine person, the dead Christ went down to the realm of the dead. He opened heaven’s gates for the just who had gone before him.

 

[coracobb]

What the Church teaches:

“HE DESCENDED INTO HELL. ON THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN”

CCC 631 Jesus “descended into the lower parts of the earth. He who descended is he who also ascended far above all the heavens.” The Apostles’ Creed confesses in the same article Christ’s descent into hell and his Resurrection from the dead on the third day, because in his Passover it was precisely out of the depths of death that he made life spring forth:

Christ, that Morning Star, who came back from the dead, and shed his peaceful light on all mankind, your Son who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

Paragraph 1. Christ Descended into Hell

CCC 632 The frequent New Testament affirmations that Jesus was “raised from the dead” presuppose that the crucified one sojourned in the realm of the dead prior to his resurrection. This was the first meaning given in the apostolic preaching to Christ’s descent into hell: that Jesus, like all men, experienced death and in his soul joined the others in the realm of the dead. But he descended there as Savior, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits imprisoned there.

CCC 633 Scripture calls the abode of the dead, to which the dead Christ went down, “hell” - Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek - because those who are there are deprived of the vision of God. Such is the case for all the dead, whether evil or righteous, while they await the Redeemer: which does not mean that their lot is identical, as Jesus shows through the parable of the poor man Lazarus who was received into “Abraham’s bosom”: “It is precisely these holy souls, who awaited their Savior in Abraham’s bosom, whom Christ the Lord delivered when he descended into hell.” Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him.

CCC 634 “The gospel was preached even to the dead.” The descent into hell brings the Gospel message of salvation to complete fulfilment. This is the last phase of Jesus’ messianic mission, a phase which is condensed in time but vast in its real significance: the spread of Christ’s redemptive work to all men of all times and all places, for all who are saved have been made sharers in the redemption.

CCC 635 Christ went down into the depths of death so that “the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” Jesus, “the Author of life”, by dying destroyed "him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and [delivered] all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage."Henceforth the risen Christ holds “the keys of Death and Hades”, so that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.”

Today a great silence reigns on earth, a great silence and a great stillness. A great silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. . . He has gone to search for Adam, our first father, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow Adam in his bonds and Eve, captive with him - He who is both their God and the son of Eve. . . “I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. . . I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead.”